Table of Contents

VOLUME XVI.6 November + December 2009

Richard Anderson, Jon Kolko

While our profession may have its roots in computing, it has quickly evolved into the world of behavior. We empower social change, strive to support authentic experiences, and borrow heavily from our disciplinary neighbors. Our work in the field of interactions has jumped from a technological point of view to…

Woodrow Winchester

As the global war on HIV/AIDS continues to grow, there have been focused efforts in HIV-transmission prevention work and preventative intervention design and implementation in the developing world. However, domestic needs are also ever present and rising. In published remarks made during the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference held in…

Robert Fabricant

As the global war on HIV/AIDS continues to grow, there have been focused efforts in HIV-transmission prevention work and preventative intervention design and implementation in the developing world. However, domestic needs are also ever present and rising. In published remarks made during the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference held in…

Mark Matthews, Gavin Doherty

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately one million people per year commit suicide. Mental disorders such as depression are responsible for more than 90 percent of these deaths. In fact, depression is the leading cause of disability in the developed world, and the human and economic cost of mental…

Nithya Sambasivan, Nimmi Rangaswamy, Kentaro Toyama, Bonnie Nardi

HCI for Development (HCI4D) lies at the intersection of information communication technologies for development (ICT4D) and human-computer interaction (HCI). The mainstream HCI community creates user experiences for the developed-world consumer, while ICT4D is concerned about creating relevant technologies for developing nations. The fusionHCI4Devolved and realigned goals to design user experiences…

Kristin Hanks, Larry Riss, Steve Schunk, Eli Blevis

You might not consider $22 a lot of money, but when you are talking about $22 in energy savings per installed computer, per year, in a large organization, it can be meaningful in terms of both cost savings and carbon-footprint reduction. Recognizing that many people are now aware of the…

Kirsten Boehner

I’m terrified of flying over the ocean. This is an unfortunate neurosis, considering my constant trans-Atlantic travel. My husband tries to assuage my fear of the dark ocean and its creatures engulfing me: He assures me I’d be dead on impact. Somehow this fails to comfort me. While writing this…

danah boyd

Many of us have had our lives transformed by technology. And many of us are also enamored of the transformative potential of technology, which has led us to develop technology and become advocates of technological practices. As we become more enveloped in and by technology, it’s easy to feel excited…

Uday Gajendar

“We let the math and the data govern how things look and feel.”Marissa Mayer, VP of search and user experience at Google “Good design adds value of some kind, gives meaning, and, not incidentally, can be a sheer pleasure to behold; it respects the viewer’s sensibilities and rewards the entrepreneur.”Paul…

Michele Visciola

We very much like stories of products and services that show the advantages of people-centered innovation approaches over pure technological innovation. In our community it is widely recognized that those companies who take on a people-centered approach are more successful on the market. But what really differentiates people-centered innovation approaches…

Youngho Rhee, Juyeon Lee

For the past decade, mobile phones have been used primarily to make phone calls. However, with an increase in the number of mobile phone users and improvements to mobile phone technology, new forms of interaction and new kinds of applications become possible. Now the role of mobile phones is expanding…

Paul Pangaro

For the past decade, mobile phones have been used primarily to make phone calls. However, with an increase in the number of mobile phone users and improvements to mobile phone technology, new forms of interaction and new kinds of applications become possible. Now the role of mobile phones is expanding…

Marc Rettig, Alex Wright

You remember how it all started, right? People who were designing interfaces said, “Our scope is bigger than the interface. This stuff is dynamic. It’s conversational. We are Interaction Designers!” A few years went by, and the industry started to internalize this perspective. Older terms like “interface design” and “usability”…

Steve Portigal, Stokes Jones

While in Las Vegas for the first time a number of years ago, we had occasion to visit the Las Vegas Hilton where “Star Trek: The Experience” was operating. The immersive “themed attraction” spilled over into a cafe (Quark’s Bar and Restaurant) and shopping area both modeled after the TV…

Donald Norman

I recently attended two conferences on usability, security, and privacy. The first, SOUPS (Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security), was held on the Google campus in Mountain View, CA, the second at the National Academies building in Washington, DC. Google is a semi-restricted campus. People can freely wander about the…

Brett Ingram

If you are reading this article, you probably work or study in a field that can generally be referred to as interaction design. No matter the specific role, we are all working toward producing an end product even as we work on different aspects of it. This product typically involves…

Valerie Jacobs

Considering the tectonic shifts in the economic, social, and cultural landscape over the past two years, it appears that we in the branding and design communities could be at a crossroads in our practices. In a world where consumers are less consumed with consuming, we ask ourselves, how exactly did…

William Lidwell

The doorbell rings. I glance out the window and see a Federal Express delivery truck. I open the door, exchange pleasantries with the driver, sign for my package using a nifty industrial-strength PDA, and then watch her scurry down the stairs and back into the truck. As she races away…

Michael Buckland

Why recall forgotten pioneers? Human-computer interaction is only one specific kind of mediating interface. If we want a broader understanding of interactions, we should be willing to think about other and earlier kinds of interfaces. Bibliographies are a kind of mediating interface between a reader and literature; there are “soft”…

Jon Kolko

Judging the “trueness” of designed artifactsobjects, websites, or printed publicationsis easy. The authenticity of these artifacts depends entirely on their material, craft, and ability to produce an illusion: A company has made a claim, and the object becomes the substantiation of that claim. It’s easy to see through an object…